Corn Ranch, commonly referred to as Launch Site One (LSO), is a

spaceport A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word ''spaceport''—and even more so ''cosmodrome''—has traditionally referred to sites capable of ...

owned and operated by

Blue Origin Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P. is an American space technology company headquartered in Kent, Washington. The company operates the suborbital New Shepard rocket and the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. In addition to producing engines for its own ...

which is located approximately north of the town of

Van Horn, Texas Van Horn is a town in and the county seat of Culberson County, Texas, United States. According to the 2010 census, Van Horn had a population of 2,063, down from 2,435 at the 2000 census. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census results detailed ...

, United States. The plot of land was purchased by

Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ; born January 12, 1964) is an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and clou ...

in 2004. The company uses the spaceport for testing and launch services for its

New Shepard New Shepard is a Reusable launch vehicle, fully reusable Sub-orbital spaceflight, sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, who became the List of space travelers by nationali ...

rocket. The launch site has a sub-orbital launch pad and also has a number of rocket engine test stands. The engine test cells are at the site to support the hydrolox, methalox and storable propellant engines that are used. There are three test cells for testing the methalox BE-4 engine, two of which support full-thrust and full-duration burns, and one that supports short-duration, high-pressure preburner tests. The spaceport also includes a vehicle processing facility and an astronaut training facility. The company's first human spaceflight launched from Launch Site One (LS1) on July 20, 2021. The flight, dubbed NS-16, carried its founder

, his brother

Mark Bezos Marcus Jim Bezos ( ; born ) is an American space tourist and former advertising executive. He is the half-brother of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, with whom he flew to the edge of space as part of the Blue Origin NS-16 mission on July 20 ...

, test pilot and Mercury 13 member

Wally Funk Mary Wallace Funk (born February 1, 1939) is an American aviator, commercial astronaut, and goodwill ambassador. She was the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, the first female civilian flight ...

, and Dutchman

Oliver Daemen Oliver Daemen (born 20 August 2002) is a Dutch space tourist who flew as part of the 20 July 2021, sub-orbital Blue Origin NS-16 spaceflight. At the time of his flight he was 18 years old, and became the youngest person, first teenager, and fi ...

on a suborbital flight aboard New Shepard 4.

FAA launch license information

Current launch license and experimental permits from the US government

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

authorize flights of

rockets. The site became active on November 13, 2006 with the goal of providing commercial tourist flights to space.

Location

The launch pad is located at , about north of the check-out building. The landing pad is located at , about north of a check-out building and north of the launch pad.

References

{{Blue Origin Spaceports in the United States Buildings and structures in Culberson County, Texas Blue Origin Blue Origin facilities